Documentary Project
From 2009 to 2012, I coordinated the work of a team who produced a duology of documentaries on Italian colonialism: LA QUARTA VIA and AULO'.
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La quarta via: Mogadiscio, Italia (ITA 2012, 37', English Subtitles). Based on an oral tale by Kaha Mohamed Aden. Directors: Simone Brioni, Graziano Chiscuzzu, Ermanno Guida. Writers: Kaha Mohamed Aden, Simone Brioni. Editors: Ermanno Guida, Graziano Chiscuzzu. Cinematographers: Graziano Chiscuzzu, Ermanno Guida. Recordist: Isacco Chiaf. Photographs: Claudio Colombo, Elena Bedei. Soundtrack: Giovanni Ferliga. English Subtitles: Florence Ethel Dickens. Production: REDigital; 5e6. Distribution: Kimerafilm. First Prize Libero Bizzarri Documentary Festival - Mediaeducazione, San Benedetto del Tronto, 2010. Official Selection A Film for Peace. Medea Film Festival, Medea, 2011. |
Kaha Mohamed Aden, an Italian writer of Somali origin, narrates her memories of Mogadishu, her hometown, and reconstructs its story in Pavia, where she currently lives. The capital city of Somalia is divided into five main streets, with each corresponding to different historical periods. The ‘fourth road’ symbolizes the actuality of civil war, but also negates the preceding periods and makes it necessary to set our hopes on a ‘fifth street’. The Fourth Road: Mogadishu, Italy brings to our attention the issues of a land which shared a number of historical relationships with Italy in the past years; yet, this problematic aspect unfailingly tends to be overlooked by Italian mass-media. The history of the city of Mogadishu gives rise to many important fundamental questions on the history of Italy itself, given the assumption that we have a limited, and, to some degree, distorted historical view on this matter, not to mention the partial omission of the colonialism period, of which people seem inclined to take no notice. The Fourth Road: Mogadishu, Italy aims to present the story of a ‘new town’ in a country which appears to be growing increasingly xenophobic and intolerant.
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Aulò: Roma postcoloniale Official Selection Docucity. Documentare la città, Milano, 2013. Official Selection A Film for Peace. Medea Film Festival, Medea, 2013. |
Who are you? In an attempt to give an answer to this question, Ribka Sibhatu, Italian writer and essayist of Eritrean origin, presents the history of her homeland in her current city, Rome. In her imaginary trip backwards through her memories, she is accompanied by a young Italian man, who shares her same interest in exploring the relationship between identity and territory. Ribka’s own personal story intersects powerfully with the stories of the Eritrean diaspora, which not only does it show the fault traces that colonialism has left behind in her country, but also demonstrates how the perception of immigration in Italy has been profoundly influenced by an apparent failure in the process of decolonization in Italian collective memory. Aulò brings into question the concept of confine, not only in geographical, but also in cultural and identitarian terms.
Screenings (selection)
La quarta via. Mogadiscio, Italia
'Negoziazioni e performance identitarie di migranti nell'Europa contemporanea:Lingua, letteratura, arti multimediali', Università di Verona, Oct. 23, 2014;Casa dei diritti, Milano, May 9, 2014; MuseumFestival-Contaminazioni culturali, Nuovo Cinema Eden, Brescia, Apr. 10, 2014; Reel Islington Film Festival, London, Feb. 28, 2014; Biblioteca Casa di Khaoula, Bologna, Feb. 24, 2014; University of Michigan, Nov. 14, 2013; Festival del cinema africano - VII edizione, Brescia, Oct. 10, 2013; University of Newcastle, Jun. 9, 2013; Museo Pigorini, Rome, Mar. 16, 2013; Università di Bergamo, Apr. 30, 2013; Libera Università delle Donne, Milano, Apr. 20, 2013; Arte in Corte Festival, Manerba del Garda (BS), Apr. 6, 2013; Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies Critical Forum, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Feb. 20, 2013; Italian Cultural Institute, Addis Abeba, Feb. 7, 2013; Conference, 'à l'ouest d'Aden', LE TARMAC, Paris, Jan. 12, 2013; Conference ‘Lands of Strangers? Migrazioni, genere, intersezioni della cittadinanza’, Università di Padova, Oct. 12, 2012; Associazione di Studi Africani in Italia, Annual Conference, Sep. 11, 2012; St. Joseph University, Philadelphia, Sep. 6 2012; Research Seminar, Università La Sapienza, Rome, Nov. 10, 2011; Conference by the Association of American College and University Programs in Italy, ‘Echi Oltremare: Italy, the Mediterranean... and Beyond’, Rome, Jun. 18, 2011; Film Festival ‘A Film for Peace’, Gorizia, Official Selection, Jun. 2 2011; Workshop ‘Contemporary Italian Documentaries and the “Bel Paese"', University of Warwick, Institute of Advanced Studies, May 16, 2011; Seminar ‘Atti scritturali come atti di cittadinanza’, Università degli studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Apr. 7, 2011; Conference ‘Italy United, Italy Divided? Identity and Citizenship in Italy: The Politics of the Contemporary’, Open University Birmingham, Apr. 1, 2011; Research Seminar, University College London, Mar. 8, 2011; Research Seminar, University of Oxford, Mar. 4, 2011; Premio Libero Bizzarri, San Benedetto del Tronto, Dec. 7 2010; ‘OLTREilMARginE’, Festival di letteratura e migrazione, Brescia, Nov. 14 2010; ‘Summer Accademy’, Centro Altreitalie, Turin, Jun. 10, 2010; Festival ‘Il Gioco degli Specchi’, Trento, Nov. 6, 2009.
Aulò. Roma postcoloniale
Festival Gutemberg, Catanzaro, May 22, 2014; Università di Napoli-L'Orientale, May 7, 2014; MuseumFestival-Contaminazioni culturali, Nuovo Cinema Eden, Brescia, Apr. 10, 2014; Festival Palinsesti - Centro Diego Fabbri, La Feltrinelli, Forlì, Apr. 3, 2014; Reel Islington Film Festival, London, Feb. 28, 2014; The Rome Campus, Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), Rome, Feb. 27, 2014; Biblioteca Casa di Khaoula, Bologna, Feb. 24; Casa internazionale delle donne, Roma, Dec. 18, 2013; University of Michigan, Nov. 14, 2013; Festival del cinema africano - VII edizione, Brescia, Oct. 10, 2013; University of Newcastle, Jun. 9, 2013; Festival Docucity. Documentare la città (official selection), Milano, May 8, 2013; Università di Milano, May 7, 2013; Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies Critical Forum, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Feb. 20, 2013; Italian Embassy - Addis Abeba, Feb. 7, 2013; Conference 'Culture e letterature di migrazione', Rome, Jan. 17, 2013; Conference, 'à l'ouest d'Aden', LE TARMAC, Paris, Jan. 12, 2013; Museo Pigorini, Rome, Dec. 1, 2012; University of Leicester, Nov. 28, 2012; University College London, Nov. 21, 2012;University of Reading, Nov. 20, 2012; University of Cambridge, 15 Oct. 2012; Moonstone Arts Centre, Philadelphia, 5 Sep. 2012; Conference ‘Multistable Citiscapes’, Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin, 7 Jun. 2012; Research Seminar, University of Oxford, 9 May 2012; Research Seminar ‘Il Postcoloniale Italiano’, Università la Sapienza, Roma, Dec. 16 2011; Festival Il Gioco degli Specchi, Trento, Nov. 11, 2011; Summer Accademy - Centro Altreitalie, Torino, Jun. 13, 2011; Research Seminar, Università degli Studi di Reggio Calabria, Jun. 4, 2011; Conference ‘Contemporary Rome: Engaging with the Past, Projecting the Future’, University of Warwick, 25 Feb. 2011.
Reviews
- Barbieri, Daniele. 'L'ombra del colonialismo'. L'Unione Sarda (Dec. 15, 2012).
- Bonomo, Manuel. ʻNelle mie pellicole cʼè la nostra Africa. Somalia e Eritrea nei film di Simone Brioniʼ, in Il Corriere della Sera Online (Sep. 30, 2012).
- Brioni, Simone. 'Migrant Stories and Italian Colonialism: A Report on Two Documentaries', in The Italianist 33.2 (2013), pp. 321-324.
- Camilotti, Silvia. ʻSomalitalia - Aulò! Aulò! Aulò!ʼ, in Lettera Internazionale 115, 'Storia, memoria, cittadinanza', p. 55.
- Calò, Rosa. ʻSomalitalia - Aulò! Aulò! Aulò!ʼ, in Le monde diplomatique (Nov. 15, 2012), p. 28.
- Cavagnoli, Franca. ʻAntidoti allʼamnesia del passato colonialeʼ, in Il manifesto (Dec. 18, 2012), p. 11.
- Comberiati, Daniele. ʻRaccontare lʼItalia postcoloniale. Note sparse su identità e cultura apartire nei documentari Aulò e La quarta viaʼ, in Nazione Indiana (Dec. 14, 2012).
- Davis-Walker, Ellen. 'Re-mapping Postcolonial Italy: an Interview with Simone Brioni on the Documentary Aulò', in ReadingItaly (2013).
- Dolfo, Nino. 'Eritrea e Somalia, doppio ciak sulle bugie dell'Italia coloniale'. Il Corriere della Sera/Brescia, p.10.
- Karim Metref. 'Quarta via: La Somalitalia di Kaha Mohamed Aden', in Media4us.it (Oct 26, 2012)
- Kombola Ramadhani Mussa. 'Le ex-colonie italiane nei racconti orali di Ribka Sibhatu e Kaha Mohamed Aden: I documentari La Quarta via. Mogadiscio, Italia e Aulò. Roma post-coloniale' in Enthymema: Rivista di teoria, critica e filosofia della letteratura 7 (2012), pp. 252-256.
- Giuliani, Chiara. 'Aulò! Aulò! Aulò! Poesie di nostalgia d'esilio e d'amore - Somalitalia: Quattro vie per Mogadiscio'. Italian Studies 68.3 (2013), pp. 470-471.
- Ghidini, Danyel. 'Per un nuovo orientamento: I documentari La Quarta via e Aulò', in Affrica (Nov. 12, 2012).
- Gregorio, Paola. 'L'Italia dal volto africano vista da Brescia: Simone Brioni narra in due documentari Somalia ed Eritrea "ricreate" a Pavia e a Roma'. Giornale di Brescia (Oct. 10, 2012).
- Loschi, Chiara. 'Memorie di Pace', in VpS - Volontari per lo Sviluppo (2010), pp. 41-43.
- Luijnenburg, Linde. 'Voices on Italy's Recent History: Aulò. Roma Postcoloniale and La quarta via', in Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani 28.1 (2013), pp. 101-103.
- Mari, Lorenzo. 'Simone Brioni (a cura di),Somalitalia: Quattro Vie per Mogadiscio. Somalitalia: Four Roads to Mogadishu; Ribka Sibhatu, Aulò!Aulò!Aulò! Poesie di nostalgia, d’esilio e d’amore. Aulò!Aulò!Aulò! Poems of Nostalgia, Exile and Love', in La Libellula. Rivista di Italianistica 5 (2013), pp. 130-132.
- Marino, Alessandra. 'La quarta via: Mogadiscio, Italia (ITA, English Subtitles, Kimerafilm 2012, 38'); Aulò: Roma postcoloniale (ITA, English Subtitles, Kimerafilm 2012, 48')', in Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture 4 (2013).
- Martino Grisà, Mariarita.' Aulò. La storia di Ribka Sibhatu', Cinemonitor (Mar. 30, 2011).
- Martino Grisà, Mariarita. 'La quarta via: multiculturalismo in Somalia', in Cinemonitor (Mar. 30, 2010).
- Montesanto, Alessandra. 'Aulò. Poesie della Roma Post-coloniale' in Assaman: Rivista Italo-Africana (Nov. 24, 2012).
- Montesanto, Alessandra. 'La quarta via. Mogadiscio, Italia. Intervista a Kaha Mohamed Aden' in Per i diritti umani - Blog (Mar. 9, 2013).
- Morini, Laura. 'Visioni postcoloniali', in Strumenti Cres n. 60 (Febbraio 2013).
- Mura, Maria Rosa. 'Afroitaliane. Perchè No?', in Il gioco degli specchi 3 (Oct. 2011), pp. 8-9.
- Olivi, Maria Vittoria. 'Re-shaping Distances: The Documentaries Aulò and La quarta via'. Cinemafrica. Africa e diaspore nel cinema (May 2014).
- Riccio, Luigi. 'La quarta via', in Corriere immigrazione (Feb. 10, 2011).
Bibliography
Acquistapace, Laura. Raccontar(si) nell'Italia postcoloniale La voce di Kaha Mohamed Aden. Tesi di laurea in Sociologia della Letteratura. Relatore: Prof. Fulvio Pezzarossa. Università di Bologna, 2010-2011.
Brioni, Simone. 'Pratiche "meticce": Narrare il colonialismo italiano "a più mani'" in Postcoloniale italiano:Tra letteratura e storia, ed. by Franca Sinopoli (Latina: Novalogos, 2013), pp. 89-119.
Brioni, Simone. 'Tradurre l’identità nell’Italia post-coloniale: La quarta via di Kaha Mohamed Aden', in Altreitalie 41 (2011), pp. 110-124.
Jansen, Monica. 'Le cinque vie di Kaha: i colori dei "fra-intendimenti"', Narrativa 33-34 (2011-2012), pp. 237-249.
Stabel, Martha Ann. La questione identitaria nella scrittura delle autrici di provenienza somala. Tesi di laurea in Lingua e Letteratura Italiana. Relatrice: Dr. Anna Moc. Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Krakow, 2010-2011.
